Monarca Project Launched to Help People Affected by Bipolar Disorder

Online, October 21, 2010 (Newswire.com) - All of us have experienced at some point mood swings, but that does not mean we all suffer from bipolar disorder, a disease characterized by rapidly alternating episodes of mania (highs) and depression (lows). During the episodes of high excitement people might make bizarre and risky choices such as spending all their money on "fluff", and then during the periods of darkest depression they might even commit suicide, in worst cases.
The European project MONARCA (MONitoring, treAtment and pRediCtion of bipolAr disorder episodes) - coordinated by CREATE-NET Research Center with the collaboration of several international partners - was launched to help people affected by bipolar disorder.

"MONARCA - said Oscar Mayora, CREATE-NET's project coordinator - will thoroughly investigate a range of impacts of bipolar disorder by adopting a holistic approach. The project focuses on objective assessment and prediction of bipolar disorder episodes and on advancing the discovery of new markers for this disease".
Through an innovative system which consists of five main components (a sensor-enabled mobile phone, a wrist-worn activity monitor, a novel "sock integrated" physiological [GSR, pulse] sensor, a stationary EEG system for periodic measurements, and a home gateway) MONARCA will combine GPS location traces, physical motion information, and recognition of complex activities (eating habits, household activity, amount and quality of sleep) into a continuously updated behavioural profile that will be provided to doctors in a meaningful way to support the treatment.

In this way the patient's medical record will correspond more accurately to the patient's condition and medical staff can elaborate their diagnosis based on experience self-reported by the patient in addition to the physical and physiological collected data.

MONARCA system includes a closed-loop approach between the patients and medical staff through dedicated interfaces. On one hand, people affected by bipolar disorder will be aided by mechanisms of self-assessment, provision of warnings and risk profiles through persuasive patient interaction and a coaching concept for self-treatment. On the other hand, the medical staff will have access to interfaces for interpreting the data, therapy assessment and therapy planning tools (scheduling visits, planning medication) developed by the project.
"Our objective - reported Oscar Mayora - is to achieve a more accurate way of measuring the physiological signals characterizing dangerous mood swings, to give patients more decision-making autonomy and significantly improve their quality of life."